Blinking Interuption
Sixteen men gathered in the gloom to fulfill their mid-week downpainment. Many of the regular chatter-boxes were absent, so it was eerily quiet before the start.
Take a lap around the parking lot while mixing in high knees an butt kickers. The best part was announcing the disclaimer as we ran backwards dodging potholes. #Qfail
COP:
- Disclaimer – part 2 (the FNG’s look really worried now)
- SSH x 20
- IW x 20
- Merkins x 20
- Plank walk (R)
- Merkins x 15
- Plank walk (L)
- Merkins x 15
- IW x 20
- SSH x 20
Mosey over to the front parking lot.
Triple Nickel:
- Run to other end of parking lot
- Staggered arm merkins on curb (R) x 5
- Run back to starting point
- CDD x 5
- Repeat 5 times
I like balance, so rinse and repeat with left hand on curb for the merkins.
Find a piece of wall
- People’s chair
- Wall plank
- Rinse and repeat
- Wall mountain climbers
Jog to the football field for partner work:
- Partner shoulder presses x 15 / Flapjacks
- Partner wheelbarrel / Flapjacks half-way
- Partner Derkins x 15 / Flapjacks
Starfish
- 20 merkins in middle, core exercises in the corners
- HTH x 20
- Dolly x 20
- LBC x 20
- Freddie Mercury x 20
Moleskin:
- Yes, I admit the plank walks and merkins with no rest was cruel and unsavory on the shoulders.
- After round 1 of the triple nickel, Slimfast was worried that his left pectoral region would feel neglected. Problem solved with round 2.
- At some point during the triple nickel, our workout was interupted by a group of blinking lights…BRR guys performing a final gear check before Friday’s launch. They took 1 lap thru the parking lot but not one of them stapped for a single merkin. #Rude
- Thanks for bearing with me as I crafted a workout conducive to BRR tapering
- Welcome to our FNG’s, Venus and Dig Dug. Nice work this morning.
- T-claps to Venus. Dude moves to Charlotte yesterday and makes his first post today.
- Thank you Sussudio for our closing prayer.
Announcements:
- Check the weekly email and twitter for info on workout convergences Friday and Saturday.
- Good luck to all the BRR guys this weekend.
- Scratch-n-Win and his wife are leading a small group for couples struggling with marriage. See him if interested.
#BRR Ready
posted on behalf of Frasier
The deal:
The disclaimer was announced and everyone still decided to stay. The idea was to build some friendly competition between the Pax and especially the Pax doing the #BRR this upcoming weekend. There was no warm up just an announcement for the workout. The Pax was to run from South Charlotte Middle School to the intersection of Four Mile Creek. You were then supposed to do as many laps as you could going up and down Raintree Ln .3 mile each way from the speed bump at the bottom of Raintree to the top of Four Mile Creek. The goal was to be back in the parking lot by 6:10.
Moleskin:
It was a great effort out of everyone and especially Prohibition who evidentially got to the launch site a little late. He was able to track us down. Good job brother! Mr. Brady and Turkey Leg were pushing the pace and sticking together as teammates. It was good to see Turkey Leg back out there! Alf was not far behind and showed a lot of determination to take one more lap after the call to return home was made.
Blades of Glory, Good Hands and Geraldo worked well together and kept the motor running the whole time. Header and Fletch were both pushing one another and Header finished strong at the end. T claps for Purple Haze and Hairball running two miles to the launch site prior to the start. You are certainly #BRR ready.
Cheese Curd and TR continue to show off their prowess on the hills. They will be tough to keep up with this weekend. Glad TR is on #FreeRange.
I felt we got a good exposure to dodging cars running up and down the hill. There was plenty of opportunity to play real life Frogger.
I did not see some of the regulars out there today. They must be tapering for their long runs this upcoming weekend (Spackler). I am sure they will be ready to shine on Friday and Saturday!
Thanks for letting me lead this morning. It is always a pleasure and good luck to everyone running this weekend. Have fun and be safe.
Announcements: Contact Champagne or myself if you are interested in the afterschool tutoring program at Matthews Elementary that is set to start next month.
“I can’t feel my arms!”
23 men put Labor Day shenanigans behind them and tried their best to hold their own, and their bell, this morning.
COP:
SSH x 25
IW x 24 (I shorted you one)
Merkins x 10
The Thang:
Get in groups of 3 or 4. Use a different size bells each set. C’mon, challenge yourself a little:
Dead Clean x5, x10, x15 Right side, Left side
Swing Clean x5, x10, x15 Right side, Left side
Snatch x5, x10, x15 Right side, Left side
Good Morning x5, x10, x15
Partner up same size bell and mosey to lower lot.
P1 – Farmer carry to top of hill and back
P2 – Merkins
Flapjack until 200 merkins complete
P1 – Farmer carry to top of hill and back
P2 – Squats
Flapjack until 175 squats complete
Mosey back to upper parking lot
Back in your groups of 3 or 4
2 Handed Swings using different size bells, 2 sets:
x10
x15
x25
x50
Mary:
LBC x30
Moleskin:
Pax was a little confused being pulled out of their comfort zone, pushed to use different sized bells to get a more effective workout. Complacency is for the weak! After a set or two, everyone pretty much got after it. YHC used my own version of cardio with the farmer carry hills…again. You know you like ’em! 0.0 forever! With a challenging sized bell, the forearms started to go right about now. TClaps to Semi-Gloss for stepping up to a fiddy this morning. Blinded by my focus on sticking to the weinke, other than good effort, I didn’t notice too much going on throughout. Howeva, I did notice 3 of the pax with their own version of a BRR taper using smaller bells than normal. Once we made it back for swings to close it out, gassed forearms were compromising grip and left some to wonder how they would hold the steering wheel to drive home. The kettlebell is a great tool, and when used often and correctly, can ALMOST make you look as good as Run Stopper! Thanks for coming out, leading is always a worthy experience. Thanks to Scratch and Win for taking us out.
Brown
Announcements: I forgot them, so check the website and emails for convergences coming up.
#F3Swift – Silent assessments
6 PAX posted on a hot muggy morning to take one last look at the flattish Bull Ring before going more vertical.
The THANG:
- Warm-up 1.3 miles with a Mosey and some drills.
- 4 x 0.75 mile (1200m or 1.5 turns of the Bull Ring) at Threshold Pace calculated Here. 2 minutes rest in between each.
- 1 mile Mosey to COT
- Total miles about 5.5.
The Moleskin:
- Turns out, only 2 PAX from today’s group are assaulting the BRR, but any PAX who shows up to Swift would be comfortable on the hills of the Blue Ridge mountains.
- A taper week is a week to assess how you feel from the weeks of training. It can be maddening – do I feel a tweak here, am I in shape, should I test myself, should I rest… The way the workout was structured today did not help, for most PAX ran alone for 5 minutes at a time. Not the normal way we do it at Swift.
- Fortunately, YHC was happy to have Honey Bee as a pacer. Knowing that his “A” race is still weeks away at the Chicago Marathon, HB had more freedom to push it and get a max workout. YHC was a little more restrained.
- Spinner was back to Swift after a long layoff, and actually hopes to get better Cycling by running more. The first time back feels hard, but that’s why we do it, right?
- Abacus has been making Huge strides (and he’s really Tall) at Swift, and he’s probably a shoe-in for the BRR or any other running event upcoming. A chance to shine next week in the Mud Run simulation.
- Outback, while still nursing a calf issue, still plugs away out there. YHC can’t tell him to back off, for he probably would pull “that’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!”
- Stump Hugger, Swift regular, is probably feeling less Stumpy and will be more like a tall Oak soon. Getting fitter by the week.
Announcements:
- M. Tussauds on Q next week at Swift. Probably pulling some reluctant Bagpipers along, or perhaps even supplanting Bagpipe as the Tuesday bootcamp for a day, he’ll take the PAX on a Tour d’Ballantyne through several pain stations.
Steep Hill Ahead
22 men posted at Bagpipe for a good mixture of running, hill work, pull-ups and merkins. Here’s what we did:
The Thang:
COP – SSH X 20, Burpees X 10 OYO
Hill #1 (Boggy Hill): Mosey over to Boggy Hill, which is new to the PAX, for the following: 7’s – Burpees at the top, Squats at the bottom; Backwards bear crawls up hill; Partner wheel barrows up hill
Mosey down the athletic path to pull-up bars; partner up.
Round 1 – Partner 1 runs lap around the lake (1/3 of a mile); partner 2 rotates through Pull-ups X 10, Merkins X 20, Squats X 30 until partner 1 gets back; flap jack (merkins until everyone completes round 1)
Round 2 – Partner 1 runs lap around the lake (1/3 of a mile); partner 2 rotates through Hanging Leg-ups X 10, Merkins X 20, Lunges X 15 each leg until partner 1 gets back; flap jack (merkins until everyone completes round 2)
Hill #2 (The Hole): Mosey over to The Hole and slide down to the bottom for 6MOM – LBCs X 20, Dollies X 20, the flutter X 20, Heels to Heaven X 10, climb out of The Hole and head home.
COT
Moleskin:
I found Boggy Hill (Hill #1) while doing recon for my Swift Q next week (see details below) and thought it would be a great addition to the Bagpipe pain fest. The hill is tall, steep and actually pretty muddy. The PAX weren’t too excited about the partner wheel barrows up hill, but I’m guessing they will thank me for it later when it looks like they have Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s shoulders.
The Hole (Hill #2) was actually discovered by Wingman, but was first used by Dolphin a few weeks ago at Stonehenge. The hill is not as tall as Boggy Hill, but it’s much steeper. The only way to get down the hill is to slide down on your butt. At the bottom, you’re surrounded by the hill side and some woods, so you get the feeling of being in a hole. YHC was the first man down the hill and the PAX watched in amazement and almost refused to follow me, but I wasn’t backing down. The PAX finally joined me for Mary and then we climbed out of The Hole to head home.
Welcome Toro (FNG) to F3! We enjoyed having you at Bagpipe and look forward to having you back.
Great work by everyone today. As usual, it was an honor to lead the men in The Gloom.
Announcements:
Mud Run Training – YHC is on Q at Swift next Tuesday (9/9). The workout will start at the usual Swift time of 5:15am. The run will be a slightly different format than a typical Swift run and will really be a hybrid workout somewhere in between what you typically see at Bagpipe and less running than a typical Swift workout. The run named “Tour de Bagpipe” will circle the outside of Ballantyne Corporate Park, touring each of the lakes on the outskirts of the area and will include stops at pain stations along the way. It will be a great opportunity for Mud Run training, which will be here before you know it.
Convergence at The Rock on Saturday at 7am.
Devils Turn will be optional this Thursday. There is no set Q so show up and step up.
Hair Band Mile v2 and Late Show smackdown
The Thang!
Mosey to shovel flag for COP
15 SSH
Aaaaand, that’s enough let’s mosey to the stadium!
Called an audible, we can’t use the football field so we will stay on the soccer field.
Here is the deal, split into two groups, size/speed don’t matter.
Each group start on opposite corners of the field (encouraging each other as you pass someone) for the following:
(The corner exercises were: Merkins, LBCs, Freddie Mercury, Carolina Dry Docks)
Sprint 1 side of field, jog 3 sides 30 reps of called exercise in each corner
Sprint 2 sides, jog 2 & 20 reps each corner
Sprint 3 sides, jog 1 & 10 reps each corner
Some plank work then, climb back down the ladder now
Sprint 3 sides, jog 1 & 10 reps each corner
Sprint 2 sides, jog 2 & 20 reps each corner
Sprint 1 side of field, jog 3 sides 30 reps
Recovery lap and then on your six for flutters in cadence
Hand off to The Late Show!
Mosey to the dip bar and relocate to the practice field.
Partner up. P1 supine rows while P2 runs to sideline and back (about 40 yds?). Flapjack.
Next exercise merkins (what is this “push-up” The Late Show keeps talking about? Isn’t that a Popsicle or something?) and flapjack.
Next exercise squats and flapjack.
Take a rest with partner wheelbarrows to the sideline.
Repeat the row/merkins/squat round.
Take another break with P1 doing prisoner lunges toward elementary school while P2 runs to sideline and then chases down their partner. Reset and flapjack.
Grab a rock from the hornet nest.
Line up and (10) squat to overhead press in cadence with your rock. Worked down to (5) with a little plank and core work in between each round.
Shut things down with a tunnel of love pushing that rock ahead of you.
Squash a wasp with your rock and mosey to the flag, cause we are done!
The Moleskin:
Solid group out there today! After the extremely short COP of 15 SSH and Mosey the first thing I heard was Zip… “Hair Band is running?!” Yes, and that was my goal, do a beat down nobody would expect from me. In this case it was a variation of a soccer conditioning workout that had us running and seemed to be a good beatdown from the little mumble chatter I did hear. When complete Zip mentioned it was indeed a little over a mile of sprints/jogging plus the 240 corner reps. Hair Band Mile v2 complete.
I do think it is ironic that when getting rocks from the pile and disturbing the wasp nest it was Drop Thrill who just was at “The Fury 325” (hornet inspired) coaster announcement that was stung along with Jellyfish who has its own ties to stinging. Glad it was minor and did not cause any issues. Since I went away for the weekend I may be forgetting some things so feel free to chime in below with anything good I left out.
Announcements:
Converge at The Rock next week due to BRR and good luck to our Outland PAX and the others in F3 that are involved!
Give me some Hard Commits and we will get Fridays kicked off soon!
If there is enough interest we may be able to pull off Wednesday also.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead, it is always appreciated and an honor!
Labor Intensive
Foxhole was business as usual this morning, leaving an option for early risers, KB faithful, and those
off to normal workday hours. Ten posted for a #FreestyleQ workout, with last minute dual leadership
from the MTs.
Market Timer on Q
SSH x 25
Squats x 20*
* heckling from Frehley because YHC varied COP and dropped my typical Favorite 4 exercises
Peter Parker Merkins x 15
Mosey to Field, partner up:
P1 – 25 2-handed swings
P2 – AMRAP mountain climbers
flapjack
P1 – 15 goblet squats
P2 – AMRAP LBCs
flapjack
P1 – 15 overhead press
P2 – AMRAP merkins
flapjack
P1 – 15 horizontal rows
P2 – AMRAP squats
flapjack
P1 – AMRAP KB sumo squats
P2 – sprint width of field, 5 burpees, sprint back
flapjack
P1 – 10 plank rows left, 10 plank rows right
P2 – AMRAP flutter
Madame Tussaud lead:
Partner up with like KB size.
9-12-15-12-9 pyramid of 2-hand swings with 2 KBs
6-9-12-9-6 pyramid of clean with 2 KBs
6-9-6 pyramid of snatches, each side
COT
Great work by all today. Last minute audible to co-Q after Tussaud wanted to lead with some
heavyweight reps. Pretty sure we will be feeling this one in the morning.
Puppy Love, who visits Foxhole on holidays, was happy he posted. Loogie drew the short straw and
teamed up with Tussaud and his 70 lb bell, but was hammering the reps.
Enjoyed the rare Monday coffeeteria where we discussed unmanned aerial vehicles, Philmont’s
journey, cookie recipes, packaged foods, and numerous other topics. Those who were expecting a link to a discussed set of JPEGs, I’m leaving this out of the backblast. DM me or ask Wingman for an IP address.
Sorry Frehley…..
#F3Swift Prebalst – Race-week Taper
Swift will launch at 0515 of Tuesday from the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO. For runners that like to taper before a big race, it’s important to keep up the intensity, but cut the duration and/or lengthen the recovery. A great race-week workout that YHC has found is similar to what we’ve been doing, but with some critical changes for the taper.
The plan:
- Warm-up over to the Bull Ring, Drills, 1 to 1.5 miles
- 4x1200m at Threshold Pace with 2 minute Rest. 3 miles. While T-Pace is faster than we’ll be running and marathon or Blue Ridge Relay leg, it gets the legs moving faster, stretches them out, and is an easy pace to maintain for 0.75 miles. Calculate your T-pace here: http://runsmartproject.com/calculator.
- Cool-down back to COT for ~ 1.0mile
- Total 5 to 5.5 miles
See you in the Gloom!
Labour Day Convergence, it’s all about “U”
So YHC got hassled on Twitter the eve of the Labour Day convergence at DMZ, as one would expect when you spell Labour with the Queen’s English. It really is all about you, meaning that for me its about you, for you it’s about someone else. Sounds like a lot of partner work for the 41 pax that posted to me…and now for:
The Thang:
Jog to Carmel Middle School, try to (and largely fail) get out of the way of a car, eventually car gets through (only lost a few pax), did some high knees, then jog some more, some butt kickers, then jog some more. The pace was kept to a moderate pace, YHC heard compliments from this, it seems like the right way to warm up.
Circle up in the large bus parking lot for a little COP:
SSH x 30
Merkins x 15
IW x 20
Wide arm merkins x 10
Low Slow Squats x 15
Welcome a couple of LIFO’s including an FNG, glad to have you
CDD’s x 20 due to the hassling these were modified to Canadian Dry Docks
Partner up with someone faster or slower as the case may be
Mosey to lacrosse field
Pepper pod (3 steps then all the way down, partner then takes 3 steps, alternating) to the other end of the field, 40 merkins between partners pepper pod back
Plank it up, a little plank-o-rama by Bugeater
Partner 200 – LBC’s partner 1 runs to the other end of the field and back while partner 2 does LBC’s, flapjack until a total of 200 LBC’s are completed
Plank-o-rama by Hops, woah there cowboy, that was a lot of planking
Partner 100 as per above but with Squats
Partner 50 as per above but with Burpees (Crowd pleaser apparently)
Bear crawl with partner (if they stop, you stop, if they modify, you modify), a little more plank-o-rama with a ten count
Partner military presses, round 1 was partner 1 seated, partner 2 sweating over top of partner 1 with hands pushing down for resistance, round two was partner 2 planking with ankles in hand for presses, 10 x for each and obviously flapjacking in between
Partner over/unders x 10 and flapjack (in case your heart rate was slowing down, YHC’s wasn’t but some of your beasts out there…)
Partner get up assists, x 5 each side and flapjack
a 10 count, followed by a 15 count…Q about to spill here
Circle up in the field for some Mary:
LBC’s x 20
Flutter x 15
Dolly x 15
Sid-The-Kid x 10, alternating direction each rep oyo (good comments after that one)
Cross oblique crunch x 5 IC each way
Back with the partner for Prairie Fire Mary x 15 and flapjack
Mosey back to the parking lot, YHC circle back to the six, on the one hand because that’s what I do, on the other because I was about to spilllllll
Moleskine:
Absolute honour (see what I did there) to lead today, as it is every day, Some serious effort was put out there by all, YHC finds that a partner (thanks Spandex) helps push you and vice versa, sort like the iron sharpening thing (ISI). Thankfully it was fairly warm so that everyone at least gave the illusion of breaking a sweat, YHC pretty much killed himself so hopefully the beasts at least we slightly pushed. Was great to have an FNG join us as it always is, please keep up the EH, it’s meant a lot to YHC and all of you, it means a lot to the guy that hasn’t yet come as well. A great take out by Hops as he always does. T Claps to Bugeater and I think Chelms who ran in/out 2 miles. Serious push by JV and our FNG to finish strong, keep it up, the workouts are always hard but they do get easier. Great job by Hops on the plank-o-rama Q jack, nice of you to hit a few of YHC’s achilles…also great to see Skywalker out after his recent appendix fun, you are an example to us all, working out and in daily life.
Announcements:
Keep Turkey Leg in your prayers, his mother passed away just recently
Same for Pele whose father passed away just yesterday
Chelms/Abacus’ brother’s health challenges should also be on your list
Mall Cop has the A51 high vis shirts for pickup, if you haven’t gotten yours yet ping him to catch up
EH those guys, A51 has 3 moderate workouts including Base Camp on Mondays
Beast Mode at Olympus
13 Non BRR guys posted for an epic beat down at Olympus on Saturday…every other station alternated between cardio and heavy weight. The perfect combo for functional strength and power all in one.
Warm up:
SSH with KB in Left Hand x 20 in cadence
SSH with KB in Right Hand x 20 in cadence
KB Swing x 50
Jumping Squats with KB x 20
GEAR INSANITY: Stations Include:
1) 50Ft Fire Hose Drag 100 Yards
2) Side-to-Side Over Head Squat Thrusts with 75lbs Sandbag
3) Jump Rope Non-Stop
4) Weighted Sled Pull 80 Yards
5) Soccer Ball Dribble Around Cones 80 Yards
6) 35Lbs Plate Hair Burners 50 Yards
7) 88Lbs Kettle Bell Dead Lifts Non-Stop
8) Parachute Sprint 150 Yards
9) 115Lbs Barbell Clean Snatch Press Non-Stop
10) 200 Meter Sprint
11) Medicine Ball Squat Thrusts with Throws (one bounce)
12) Rope Pull Ups Non-Stop
13) Sledge Hammer Around the Worlds
14) Bicep Curls with Dumbbells
Rounds of Pax PAIN and Sled Pulls x 13
– Pax 1 Calls out KB exercise, then pulls weighted sled 80 yards
– When Pax 1 gets back, hands sled off to Pax 2, and Pax 2 calls out exercise
– Team Pax performs whatever exercise is called out non-stop until Sled comes back
– Exercises called out: Goblet Squats, Merkin/Man Makers, Tricep Extensions, Bicep Curls, Snatch, Single Arm Alt Press, KB Swing, LBC with KB Press, Flutter with KB Press, Dolly with KB Press, Diamond Merkins on Bell and Upright Rows w KB
COT
Molesine:
I titled this one Beast Mode for a reason. Quite simply put…I’ve been so impressed with all the workouts F3 has to offer! Over the past 1.5 years we’ve learned there is a niche for everyone’s taste buds, so men can go to sites that offer up the kind of workout they are looking for. To date however (other than Day Zero at time…when Radar and Haze bring out those sandbags or Diamond Head when Byron and Nibbler bring the gear) have I left an hour long workout completely destroyed. This is the staple that we’ve created at Olympus over the past 10 months. Beast Mode is on another Strongman/Cardo/Strength level and the men that posted today absolutely Crushed it out there. As Q, it is incredibly rewarding to see guys give it their all…that today was a representation of that Herculean effort on everyone’s part.
However, one thing to point out, Hacker may have the strongest groin in the world as being O2 deprived, he strapped on the sled straps wrong and pulled the weighted sled 80 yards with his pelvic region…unreal…lol.
Again, thank you for posting with us and it is an honor to lead such a strong group of me.
Respectfully, The Hoff